White Collar Under the Radar S02E16 (USA)

The pilot episode of White Collar was most definitely slick and smart, as well as charming, as Matt Bormer will charm the pants off anyone he meets as his suave alter ego Neal Caffrey.

This show most definitely fits in the USA Network’s slew of shows, which include Burn Notice and Royal Pains. It has good pacing and interesting chemistry between Matt Bormer and Tim DeKay, something that isn’t easy to fake. They work well on the screen, there is no denying this.

Basically, Dekay’s Burke is a white collar specialist who put Bormer’s Caffrey away a few years ago. In order to reduce his sentence a bit further, after having escaped a super max jail, Caffrey offers to help Burke to catch the illusive Dutchman, a criminal that Burke has also been chasing for a few years. This setup kind of reminds me of Spielberg’s Catch Me If You Can as well as The Sting with Redford and Newman.

What’s also interesting, is that the guys don’t just keep this professional. They also involve their personal lives. Burke needs help to make his hot wife Elizabeth, played by Tiffani Thiessen, happy while Caffrey is searching for his wife that just vanished. All in all, a great show with good actors. I recommend it.

Warning:spoilers ahead

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Sara comes to see Neal and Peter. She wants to talk to Neal first. She looks pretty hot. Her dress looks pretty hot as well. Diana immediately spots the sexual tension between Sara and Neal. They are after Vincent Adler. Adler is looking for a sunken U-boat, sunken off the coast of NYC. They want to trace Adler through the rentals of boats and submersibles.

Diana and Jones have to look at Alex Hunter. They have to find her. That won’t be easy.

In order to find the U-boat with the fractal antenna, they need to be right on top of it. Neal phones Alex and Adler answers. He threatens Neal and tells him to back off.

A fence named Eames met her two weeks ago in NYC before she disappeared. They approach him with the faulexes that they seized. They trap him and Neal lifts the faulex. He hands it off to Eames when he gets searched. Eames says that Alex was heading to the garden of the conservatory. They head there to retrace her steps. Burke loses Neal and gets a call from Adler. He wants to talk with him. Neal is already in the car. He makes Peter remove Neal’s anklet. He wants them to drink a doctored drink that will make them pass out. It’s either that or the gun.

Neal wakes up and finds Alex peering at him. They are in some kind of a warehouse. The U-boat has been salvaged. The interior is rigged with explosives. Adler’s dad was a surviving crewman. He wants Neal to open it up. Peter helps him.

Sara arrives at Neal’s place and finds Mozzie trying to boost the signal of the antenna. She was late. Neal usually isn’t. It makes them suspicious. They call Diana and she gets worried. They take Mozzie and Sara with them to the garden. They noticed that the anklet was released.

They open a hatch and find an Enigma machine. That’s not good, even though the cipher used by the Germans was broken in 1932 by Polish Intelligence. The Enigma is wired to some TNT. They cut some wires and release a counter. Alex says that the password is Midas. Her grandfather told her to always remember this story. It works. They open the hatch. They find crates filled with art. It’s Nazi plunder from all over Europe. It’s worth billions. Neal switches off the camera and they look around for something. Peter finds the radio emitter. It’s got the fractal inscribed on it. Neal takes it. He might be able to jury-rig it to work. Adler makes them get back into the limo. Alex takes a Swiss Army knife from a guard.

Neal, Peter, and Alex wake up in a dry dock. The bad guys start opening the water. They use the knife to get free, but the bad guys are waiting for them with guns. Diana and Jones arrive in time to save them. Sara sees Neal kissing Alex passionately.

Alex says that Adler is planning on shipping the art out at the end of this week. She’s talking with Sara. Alex has known about the U-boat since she was a little girl through her grandfather. He is the one who encoded the antenna design into the music box. She leaves. Peter invites them over for dinner. Neal and Sara patch things up.

The next day, they’ve narrowed it down to 15 warehouses. Neal is left by himself and finds the right warehouse. Adler is around with some goons. Adler wants to bargain half of it for Neal’s help. He wants to know why Kate had to die. He blew up the plane because Kate called him to say that Burke arrived. There is an explosion followed by more. They scramble to go back inside and find an inferno. The art has burned up. Adler pulls a gun and tells Neal goodbye. At that moment, Peter shoots him. Peter finds that the paintings are the ones that Neal has been painting in his spare time. When Neal comes home, he finds a key with an address. It’s from Alex. Neal goes there and finds all of the art. It was saved. It’s the heist of the century.